Do you read aloud or silently?

Which is better and why?

Photo by Alexandra Fuller on Unsplash

Hello!

When you read something in English, do you read out loud or do you read in your head?

I asked my Facebook group this question recently and I noticed that a lot of people think it’s better to read English out loud.

I started to wonder why they think this. Most of us read our first language silently in our heads, right? So why read a second language out loud?

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First, a quick vocabulary lesson:

✔️ read out loud / read aloud

“Read out loud” and “read aloud” have the same meaning.

This means to use your voice to say the words as you read.

❌ read loudly

“Read loudly” is not exactly wrong but it’s not the same meaning as “read out loud” and I’ve never heard an English person say it. It would mean to read in a loud voice. Too loud! Shouting, perhaps!

✔️ read silently / read in your head

This means to read without speaking. You just think or hear the words in your head.

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So should you read out loud or read in your head? Which is better and why?

When I was learning Polish, my Polish teacher often asked me to read a short text out loud. When I got to the end of the paragraph, I often discovered that I hadn't understood much of the text because I was too busy concentrating on the pronunciation. Often, I had to read it all again, but silently this time.

Of course, we all learn in different ways but this is just my opinion:

If you want to improve your reading skills, it’s better to read silently. This is better for comprehension.

But if you want to practise pronunciation, you obviously need out loud.

Again, what do you do in your first language? The only time I read out loud in my first language (English for me) is if I’m tired and struggling to concentrate! The rest of the time, I read silently. It’s more natural, it’s faster and it doesn’t annoy the other people in the room!

So if you want to be good at reading English, don’t you think it’s a good idea to learn to read silently? Also, this will help you to improve your reading speed and your understanding.

But reading out loud IS good for practising your pronunciation. It can even help you with your speaking a tiny bit! If you're not confident about speaking English and find it strange hearing English coming out of your mouth, reading English out loud can help you overcome this.

But notice I said “a tiny bit”. If you want to improve your speaking skills, you have to practise making sentences spontaneously and having conversations. Reading out loud won't magically turn you into a good speaker because you're not making your own sentences.

To summarise:

If you want to practise reading, read silently.

If you want to practise pronunciation, read aloud.

If you want to improve your speaking, don’t just read, speak!

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A lot of my ideas for these emails come from conversations I have with people on Facebook.

So if you’d like to be part of the conversation, click here to follow my Facebook page or come and join one of my Facebook groups. I have a Facebook group for women and a Facebook group for everyone!

See you next week,

Katie 💙